Experimental Investigation for Single Cylinder Engine Fueled with Mustard Oil Biodiesel

Abstract

Petroleum-based fuels play a vital role as contributors of conventional energy sources. These fuels are also a major source of air pollutants. Major portion of today’s energy demand in India is being met with fossil fuels. Pollution is increasing in India and fuel import of diesel has reached to 75% level which means self-sufficiency of fuel is also decreasing therefore time has come to look for another source of energy. Vegetable oils have come up as a promising source of alternative fuels. These have been studied widely because of their abundant availability, renewable nature and comparable performance and lower emissions when used in engine. Many vegetable oils have been investigated in compression ignition engine by fuel modification or with engine modification. The vegetable oils have a problem of high density and viscosity, so to overcome these problems these oils are converted to methyl ester and used in non-modified engines. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for fossil liquid fuels that can run a CI engine either directly or in blended proportions efficiently. Biodiesel is also eco-friendly in nature. The present work deals with the utilization of Mustard oil as feedstock for biodiesel production via transesterification process. In this work, biodiesel production was done through the process of transesterification by using an alkali catalyst (KOH-0.68 gm) with alcohol (methanol) using molar ratio of (1:6), under variable reaction temperature of (60 °C), and it gave the 96.16% conversion. The various properties of the methyl esters of the mustard oils were found to be like kinematic viscosity (4.10 mm2/s), density (830.9 kg/m3) calorific value (44.40 MJ/kg) was well within the ASTM/EN standard limits. Biodiesel so prepared was blended with the diesel in 20% on volumetric basis and was designated as blend B20 and was tested at various loads i.e., No load, 25, 50, 100% and various combustion parameters like pressure versus crank angle, net heat release rate, rate of pressure rise, etc. and performance parameters like brake specific fuel consumption, brake power, exhaust gas temperature, etc. of B20 blend and diesel are compared.KeywordsBrake powerBrake specific fuel consumptionKinematic viscosityTransesterification